Why Not Philadelphia? By Thom Nickels, For The Bulletin 11/16/2008 Many questions have been asked about the proposed American Commerce Cen...

Thursday, December 8, 2016

ICON THEATER DEC 2016

The Legend of Georgia McBride
on the Arden’s Arcadia Stage is so
funny the play has been extended into December. Matthew Lopez’s rollicking
musical farce about Casey (Matteo Scammell), a broke heterosexual Elvis
impersonator forced to become a drag queen to provide for his pregnant wife, has
sent Center City audiences into non-stop laugh track mode, Ditto van
Reigersberg of Martha Graham Cracker fame stars as queen diva Miss Tracy Mills
who teaches Casey how to lose the macho and take pride in his hidden
femininity. Casey’s metamorphosis from wooden Marlboro man to a faux woman in
sequins makes this one hour and 45 minute production seem much shorter. The
somewhat contrived plot twists, such as when Casey’s wife, Jo (Jessica M.
Johnson) experiences a meltdown after discovering her husband’s new profession (she
later embraces Casey’s high heels) have so much charm and gaiety that we hardly
notice their hackneyed roots.

When a fish falls from the sky, you
can either fry up some chips or ask the universe what’s up with the weather. In Andrew Bovell’s When the Rain Stops Falling (The Wilma) the effects of climate
change forms the backdrop of a centuries old family drama delivered in Tom
Stoppard time lapse fashion. While time juxtapositions can be tricky in a Tower
of Babel kind of way, director
Blanka Zizka has created a structurally elegant narrative that is really poetry
in motion. Actors Keith Conallen, Nancy Boykin, Sarah Gliko and Steven Rishard
deliver outstanding performances, while Matt Saunders’ set and projection
design transforms the Wilma stage into a transcendental canvass that helps
makes coherent what is in fact fragmentary.
While Wilma productions generally tend to err on the side of existential
angst, When the Rain Stops is a work that
once seen will not soon be forgotten.

While the Center City theater world tends
to steer clear of populist plays like The
Road: My Life with John Denver,” (billed as a “rare glimpse of the man
behind the music”), Driving Miss Daisy
or Jesus Christ Superstar, it does
cater to plays about politics, personal alienation, the meaning or truth and all
things post-apocalyptic. City dwellers,
in fact, love to be intellectually challenged when they are not in a Martha
Graham Cracker mode. Consider InterAct Theatre Company’s 2017 Marcus/Emma (working title) at The
Drake’s Proscenium. Marcus/Emma will mash
together the legacies of anarchist Emma Goldman and black nationalist leader
Garvey “to spin their legacies in
the desperate hope of regaining prominence in our increasingly inequitable
society.” But is
‘inequitable’ really the correct word here? Will Marcus/Emma be an onstage continuation of the 2016 election? Perhaps
it’s time to reach for an axe and head over to the 11th Hour Theatre
Company at Christ Church Neighborhood House for its January production of Lizzie, a rock’ n roll retelling of the
life of Lizzie Borden. Watching Lizzie take an axe and give her mother forty
whacks might be this season’s perfect post-election cathartic release. If an
axe isn’t your thing, try 1812 Productions opening of Jennifer Child’s play The Carols (with Mary Martello and
Anthony Lawton, till December 31) for an oddball comedy about a trio of sisters
and a jobless Catskills comic.

The Lantern Theater’s production of An
Iliad is a tour de that captures the spirit of theater’s storytelling roots
in 100 intense non-stop minutes. It also showcases one of Philadelphia’s
best actor’s, Peter DeLaurier, as The
Poet, an eternal voice who relates the story of Achilles and Hector at Troy
from a script that includes masterful and funny contemporary asides. While the
text (written by Director Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare) could be shortened, the
power of An Iliad will keep your eyes
focused on DeLaurier. If you see nothing else this winter, make sure you head
to The Lantern before the play closes on December 11, although the production
is likely to be extended.

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About Me

I am a Philadelphia-based author/journalist, the author of nine published books, including: The Cliffs of Aries (1988), Two Novellas: Walking Water & After All This (1989), The Boy on the Bicycle (1991-1994), Manayunk (1997), Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia (2000), Tropic of Libra (2002), Out in History and Philadelphia Architecture (2005)and SPORE (2010). In 1990, Two Novellas was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and a Hugo Award. Winner of the 2005 Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Two Novellas rewritten and retitled for Starbooks Press: Walking on Water & After All This, available as an e-book. Winner of the Philadelphia AIA 2005 Lewis Mumford Award for Architectural Journalism. I am currently the City Beat editor at ICON Magazine, a contributing editor/writer at The Weekly Press, and a weekly columnist (The Local Lens) for Philadelphia’s SPIRIT Community Newspapers. I am the Religion Editor for the Lambda Book Report, and have written for Philadelphia's Broad Street Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
www.tnickels.net